Nate Abroad

Tisha b'Av

2006-08-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Tisha b'Av, the day that commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. It is a big deal here in Jerusalem. Today I am fasting to observe the holiday, although I must admit that saving money on one of the last days of my trip is just as much of a reason for me to fast as religion. Last night, I walked around the city because everybody was out in celebration. At Safar Square, the site of city hall, there were hundreds of people with the orange flags that represent conservative politics. They have been out all week protesting because it is almost a year since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

I went to the Western Wall at about midnight. It was quite a site. There was a long line to get in and everyone was there. Of course because Jerusalem has the feel of a small town, I recognized some faces there.

At the wall, I noticed several people crying and pouding their fists against the wall. Although the Temple was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago, the Jewish people have a very long memory. The destruction of the temple is very much a part of the Jewish identity and it certainly plays a role in the conflict.

Building the "New Middle East"

2006-08-01T01:55:00.000-07:00

In Israel, there is a lot of talk of a global Jihad against the west. It's easy to fall into that belief seeing terrorist attacks perpetrated or attempted by Islamic terrorist groups in Israel, the US, Canada, London, Madrid and countless other places throughout the globe. Seeing conservative Islamist governments in Iran and Saudi Arabia converting their oil into funding for Islamic terrorist groups throughout the Middle East seems to confirm this belief. Frankly, I believe the Middle East is more complicated than that. Here's an interesting graphic that was printed in the New York Times last week. Click on it for a better look.

What does all this mean? I think it's important for the dialogue about "The New Middle East" that I've been hearing lately. The term Old Middle East is often used to refer to the time when great powers projected their influence into the Middle East at will. This is represented by the fact that even the borders in the Middle East were simply drawn up on maps by countries such as Britain and France. For instance, when I visited the Lebanese border, a man living on a Kibbutz at Mitzgav Am told me a story about why the "Blue Line" is strategically favorable to the state of Israel. His explanation was that the British diplomat had poured a few too many glasses of wine for the French diplomat and was able to take advantage. I don't know if I believe it, but the truth is that these borders were drawn by the great western powers and maintained by them as well. Foreign powers used their money to prop up favorable dictators. When one got out of line, as Mohammed Mossadeq did in the 1950s, threatening to nationalize Iran's oil supply, the foreign powers simply had him removed and replaced with a more favorable figure. This practice of foreign powers buying influence in the Middle East manifested itself even more during the Cold War. Both the US and the Soviet Union poured money and weapons into the Middle East, vying for influence. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union supported Egypt and the US supported Israel. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the US supported the religious holy warriors who battled them. It was a political struggle for power, playing out on a regional level as Middle Eastern countries weighed their offers and at a global level as the foreign powers battled for influence.

The result was a region filled with illegitimate autocratic governments that because of oil and foreign aid had no accountability towards their people. Compounding matters was the proliferation of weapons in the region as the Middle East became one of the most militarized regions in the world. A few benefitted, while the majority lived in the despair of poverty and war. On September 11, 2001, the US learned how painful these problems in the Middle East could become for people thousands of miles away.

This talk came to a head in the aftermath of the US war in Iraq. When Bush decided to go into Iraq, he talked of removing a threat to the US and the Middle East. As the war progressed, however, the talk was about creating democracy. According to Bush and the Neoconservatives, democracy was the panacea, the way to solve the problems in the Middle East. They sought to bring about this democracy through force. Although the war and occupation has widely been deemed a failure, some thought it would be worth it to see a democratized Middle East. In the few years right after the war, the US began to see changes. Many pointed to the democratic elections in Lebanon, or the limited ones in Egypt, or in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or in the Palestinian territories. A problem arose, however. In Lebanon, Hezbollah gained political power. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood gained power. In the Palestinian territories, Hamas actually became the majority party. Hopes that these steps would lead to more moderate Islamic groups were not borne out, as Hamas and Hezbollah refused to condemn terrorism and continued attacks on Israel.

Now, there appears to be a regional war. On one side is Israel, armed with American money and on the other is Hezbollah, funded and assisted by Iran and Syria. The temptation is to label this the front of the war between Islam and the West. That ignores some details, however. First of all, governments such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have not fallen in line against Israel. While they have condemned the bombing of civilians and called for restraint from Israel, they have maintained that Hezbollah is laregely to blame. This illustrates how countries who gain a lot from relationships with Israel and the US can put aside religion. It also illustrates a division within Islam. Although Iran and Saudi Arabia are both very conservative Islamist governments, they represent different sects of Islam. Far from being united, they are engaged in a political battle for power in the Middle East. This is shown in Lebanon, where Iran supported Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia supported the government. Already, Saudi Arabia has pledged 1.5 billion dollars to rebuild Lebanon. Thus, seeing the Sunni Saudi Arabian government using its oil money to spread conservative mosques, to support the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, to prop up Sunni insurgents in Iraq and the Shiite Iran funding Hezbollah, Shiite militants in Iraq and Hamas, it's clear that there is still a political battle for the Middle East. Instead of the US, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meddling in the affairs of the Lebanese, Palestinians and Egyptians, Iran and Saudi Arabia are filling this role. This is why the democracy cannot solve the Middle East's problems right now. These elections are not decided by the people living in the countries. They are decided by the governments in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

These problems are confounded by the US war in Iraq. Removing Saddam Hussein was great, but leaving a power vacuum tipped the balance of power in the Middle East towards Iran. Worse, with its hands shackled down in Iraq, the US is ill equipped to deal with other problems in the Middle East and the world as a whole.

I believe that the Middle East could require a Marshall Plan, similar to the one used by the US in Europe following World War II. After World War II, the US identified Europe as the most strategic region in its struggle against the Soviet Union. It funneled money into Europe, building infrastructure, so that Europe would be able to defend itself from communism. The Middle East is clearly an important strategic region to the US right now and it cannot afford to keep having to get involved in these regional wars. If the US waits back, while Saudi and Iranian money rebuild Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East, the US will find itself in many more wars in the region. The US and the west must build infrastructure to ease the poverty in the Middle East and allow for stronger democracy. There are many problems with this strategy. How can it build infrastructure and democracy without strengthening the hand of terrorist organizations? How can it avoid being perceived as once again meddling in Middle Eastern affairs?

The other thing that I think the US should do is recognize that this is a political battle and not necessarily a battle between good and evil. By using politics, the US could do things like pull Syria away from Iran, but by labeling countries such as Syria as evil and refusing to talk to them, the US pushes them into the hands of the extremists. This is the Middle East and there are no good answers, but I thought I'd share the way I see the Middle East right now as well as provide a framework for the direction in which the US should move. If you agree, disagree or have suggestions, I encourage you to weigh in.

Ismail Khaldi

2006-07-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

I met a very interesting person last week. His name is Ismail Khaldi and his name has been in the news a little bit lately because he is in line to become a Deputy at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.

Khaldi is a Bedouin, born in the north of Israel, one of 11 children. He is the first Bedouin to earn a position in the foreign ministry. The Bedouins are a nomadic group of Arabs who live throughout the Middle East. There are about 115,000 in the south of Israel and 45,000 in the Galilee region.

Khaldi described his childhood to me. As a child, he would walk about 3.5 kilometers to school every day because the Bedouins did not build schools in their home community and when he would return home, he would help his family with their sheep. He grew up with no electricity.

Khaldi attended high school in Haifa and eventually attended Haifa University, becoming the first member of his family to attend college.

Khaldi spoke very good English and clutched a cellphone as he spoke. He spoke of the tension between his conservative society and living in modern Israel. "If you ask the old generation and some of the young generation if modernization means broadband internet and kids chatting and surfing the internet all night visiting porn sites, I don't want to be a part of that." Still, he recognized the opportunities presented by modern Israeli society.

Khaldi also spoke of being an Arab minority in a Jewish state. "Bedouins are never part of politics. We are nomads. Limitations never have been part of our heritage. You could be in Syria one day, then Jordan, then Israel the next."

Still, Khaldi considers himself an Israeli and an advocate of the state of Israel. "Whatever happens to Israel and it's society will happen to us because we are a part of it." Khaldi pointed out that while Bedouins are not required to serve in the IDF because they may not be able to leave their flock, many do so as volunteers.

Khaldi, like most Bedouins, grew up as a Muslim. Although he comes from a traditional society, he does not buy into the radical vision of Islam that has become a problem in some Middle Eastern societies. He pointed out how the nomadic existence did not allow Bedouins to focus on the rigid practice of religion. There were simply more important and pressing matters.

"I grew up on Islam," Khaldi said. "Islam calls for tolerance, not killing and wasting innocent lives."

He talked about Israeli society as an accepting society. "That's the state of Israel today. One culture that combines different people. It's an umbrella."

He's obviously a minority who feels very included in the Jewish state, so I asked him about those who don't. Recently, a pair of brothers, three and nine years old, in Nazareth were killed by Hezbollah rockets. Some of the town's residents blamed Israel and said that the casualties should be counted on the Lebanese side.

Khaldi explained that these feelings come from an Arab nationalism, but more from a sense of frustration. He noted that many Arabs do not have it as good in Israel as the Jews. He pointed the finger at Arab leaders, who instead of advocating their constituents to integrate into the Jewish state have advocated that they lash out against it. Still, it's important to recognize, as I learned last week from talking to an Ethiopian Jew, that minorities are still struggling in Israel and the state must do a better job to make them feel included.

As an Israeli living in the North, Khaldi talked about the situation in his hometown. "It's bad. It's bad and it's sad and it's a balaigan [my favorite Hebrew word meaning chaos or disaster]. The village is under siege. Kids can't go anywhere. It's like they're in jail. Stay there or die."

His assessment of the situation was not optimistic. "The problem is not Israel, not America, not Syria, not Jordan. Lebanon is suffering from a civil war. Even if superman comes overnight, it probably won't be solved. Lebanon needs a strong government."

Despite that dark painting of the situation, I found the meeting very uplifting to see an Israeli Arab feel like a valuable citizen of Israel.

Moshav

2006-07-24T03:02:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night, I went to a concert at Club Syndrome, which is actually right across the street from my office on Hillel Street. I went to see a couple members of a band called Moshav, formerly the Moshav Band. They played an acoustic show. The band is from Israel, but moved to Los Angeles recently where they signed a deal with Sony. It was an interesting musical collaboration. One of the guys had a very country-esque sound, while the other had this combination of soul and Middle Eastern music. If I had to come up with a comparison, I'd probably say that they sound a little bit like Guster.

Club Syndrome was a very nice place to watch a show. It was very small and it had pictures of American musicians such as Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix on the walls. Behind me was a Blues Brothers poster.

As for the show, it was decent music, but kind of a bizarre show. The band talked a lot and one of the band members was a little too drunk, in my opinion. Plus, I kind of thought they took themselves too seriously, telling some people in the crowd not to talk. I had to watch what I said though because I was sitting next to the band's family. Here are some pictures from the show.

I'm going to see Ziggy Marley play in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Israel has this strange infatuation with Bob Marley, Reggae and Rastafarian culture. Bob Marley's face is all over the place. Even at the Moshav show, they played a cover of Redemption Song by Bob Marley. I'm sure I'll find more out about that infatuation this weekend.

Que Sera, Sera

2006-07-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

I had a very interesting cab ride yesterday. I wanted a little break from the routine, so I decided to go to an American movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. As usual, the cabride was the most interesting part of the night.

The cabdriver's name was Avner. He spoke very good English and asked lots of questions about our trip. When we got to the subject of the current situation, he apologized and said that we had come at a bad time. "Every two years, every five years, we have a war," he said. Earlier in the week, I heard a slightly more conservative statement. Nachman Shai, IDF Spokesperson during the Gulf War, explained that every decade Israel has another major war. On an interesting note, an Israeli explained to me that Shai, who was the one who would come on TV and tell people to wear their gasmasks, became a bit of a folk hero in Israel. She shared stories of her and her husband watching TV in their gasmasks and laughing at how ridiculous the situation was.

Shai's statement is born out by history. In 1948, Israel had to fight for its independence. In 1956, in response to statements by Egypt that Israel should be destroyed, Israel invaded the Sinai. In 1967, Israel fought another war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan. In 1973, Israel was attacked by Egypt, Syria and other Arab states. In 1982, Israel invaded southern Lebanon to remove the PLO threat from the region. The 1990s did not feature a major war, but it did feature rampant terrorist attacks on Israel. I don't know how this war will be viewed in a few years, but many journalists here feel it is a turning point.

Life in Israel goes on, however. Israelis have unfortunately become accustomed to these situations. Last night, the movie theater was completely packed. Although some major events in have been cancelled, such as this weekend's Tel Aviv Goldstar Beer Festival, there are still people going out each night and the streets are still crowded. Up in the North, people are confined to their bomb shelters and the streets are deserted as I have heard, but many people are still going to work.

In the middle of the cab ride, the driver began singing along with the radio. "Que sera, sera...Whatever will be, will be...The future's not ours to see...Que sera, sera." By the end of the ride we were all singing along with him. Que sera?

Sderot

2006-07-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

I'm really behind on writing on this because of the rapidly deteriorating situation here. Yesterday's missile attack (I use the word missile for a reason. The IDF believes that Hezbollah was using Iranian-made Fajr rockets) on Haifa was an escalation. There is a lot of concern here about the kinds of rockets or missiles that Hezbollah possesses. Already, they've shown much more precision and range than they did in previous Katyusha attacks on the North. So, today there was an attack on Afula. Afula is 45 kilometers from the Lebanese border, farther than any projectile attack so far. Yesterday, the entire country north of Tel Aviv was put on alert by the IDF and as the attacks steadily creep southward, I think the country is getting ever more tense. Yesterday, I talked to a guy in an elevator who told me that this was the worst its been here in the 20 years he's been here. He admitted that the Gulf War may have been slightly more intense because of the gas masks, but he said this was almost as bad.

The attack on Afula was not the only sign of escalation of the conflict today. Last night, al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade (Fatah's terrorist wing) in Nablus lobbed a bomb at a patrol of soldiers, killing one and wounding five more. St.-Sgt. Osher Damari, 20, was killed in the attack. According to the Jerusalem Post, a group of Palestinians gathered to celebrate around the soldier's body parts. This was a terrifying news story for me this morning because the IDF threatened dire retribution if it did not receive the body parts. With the situation in Gaza as well as the situation in Lebanon, the last thing the IDF needs is an operation in the West Bank. Luckily, al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade announced that it will return the body.

The other big story was the attempted suicide bombing in Jerusalem. A 25-year old Palestinian male from the West Bank was caught carrying a 5-kg bomb in a bag. He was caught by a security check on Jaffa Road, just outside of Jaffa Gate. That is at most a 10 minute walk from where I'm staying, so that story really hit home. I had just found out today that the son of one of my co-workers lost an eye in a terrorist attack. Israel's a small country and it seems like everybody's lives have been touched by terrorism in a way. Another wave of terror would be just too much to bear emotionally.

I wanted to recount my trip to the western Negev last week. First, I stopped off at Sha'ar HaNegev (Gate of the Negev) to meet with a representative from the regional council there. A regional council in Israel is like a municipality, except it serves rural areas. There I met with Eliyahu Segal, secretary for the regional council.

Although Sha'ar HaNegev has a population of 6,000, it serves an area of 50,000 people. It is sparsely populated desert land. The claim to fame for Sha'ar HaNegev until very recently was that it is the home of Sappir College and also Ariel Sharon's farm. Recently, however, the area has become more well known for the Kassam rockets that have been launched there from Gaza. More than a thousand kassams have landed there in the past three and a half years.

"I must say the truth," Segal said. "The last year, or two years, have been very hard days and nights. Every night, I get up every hour or every half hour and I hear the bombs."

Segal described how he would count the second between the launching of bombs and the time of impact in Gaza. I thought it was ironic that instead of counting sheep in bed, he counted the sounds of the blasts.

Segal told a story that took place in Sha'ar HaNegev, just three weeks before I arrived. One Saturday night, a group of parents went to the head of the regional council and argued that he should close down the schools. He originally protested because he believed that the community had to go on.

Yet, the parents insisted and he agreed. The next day, when the students were supposed to be at school, a kassam rocket landed outside of the school, sending a janitor the hospital with shrapnel wounds. One can only speculate what could have been.

"We have luck," Segal said. "Every day, we pray to have another day and another day without a problem."

One interesting aspect of the conversation was that Segal supported the disengagement. There has been a lot of protest in places like Sderot from people who feel that the kassams would not be falling if it weren't for disengagement. When the disengagement occurred, many of the uprooted families moved to Sha'ar HaNegev, where the council built housing.

It's hard to think that these people left their houses for "peace" and now they must live in fear of Kassam rockets.

Segal left me with a message of hope.

"I love this place and I'm sure we can find, I don't say peace, but quiet," he said.

Next, I traveled to Sderot. Before Kassams started hitting Ashkelon, a major city with a large population and important role in Israel's energy production, Sderot was the focus of the situation with Gaza. Sderot is a small Israeli town of 25,000 in the western Negev, less than a mile from the Gaza border.

Before the incursion of the IDF into Gaza, many of the Sderot residents were protesting the inaction of the government. Part of this is due to the right wing ideology of people who would choose to live so close to Gaza.

Yet, looking at a fairly rundown, depressing community, I realized that there was another issue at play. With it's low budget housing and depressed economy, Sderot is also home to people who live there because they cannot afford to live anywhere else.

Walking around, I noticed that there were very few signs written in English. One of the few signs read, "Do you feel safe? Can you sleep well? Do you feel protected? Well...we don't...It's time to wake up from the nightmare, say 'No' to Kassam!! Say 'yes' to life."

In Sderot, I talked to one of the few fluent English speakers Atara Orenbach, a mother of six. Orenbach is a school teacher who learned English from her parents, who immigrated from New York. Seven years ago, she decided to move from a settlement to Sderot. Moving to Sderot, she thought things would be much quieter than in the settlements.

"We decided that we should look for a place where we could do as much as possible for Israeli society," Orenbach said.

In Sderot, she took a job as a high school computer science teacher, offering children a skill to help them advance. Her husband teaches Judaic studies at the high school as well. One day, while he was teaching his students the Torah out of his classroom, a Kassam rocket went through the roof of his classroom. Just by chance, that day he had extended Torah study so the students were outside of the room at the time.

"It was just a miracle, one of the many miracles we've had in Sderot" Orenbach said.

Orenbach discussed the conversations she's had with her children about security.

"I taught them, even the three-year old, if you hear the alarm, you leave your bike and run to the house," she said. "It's very hard to get a three-year old to leave his possessions."

Still, Orenbach said with a saddened expression that all her children, even the three-year old were now experts in what to do if attacked by a missile. She described how her family no longer sleeps upstairs anymore, choosing to sleep together in the basement. When her seven-year old wants to take a shower, she refuses to do it alone, in case the alarm goes off and there's nobody to tell her.

"My children should be allowed to sleep quietly at night," she said. "My children should be allowed to go to the playground."

Driving through Sderot, I saw evidence of Kassam attacks on rooftops, streets and playgrounds. These are not precise weapons by any stretch, but they can kill and they have this community living in fear. With all the attacks in the north right now, the attacks in Sderot seem to be an afterthought, but they are still happening every day. I think the message that I took from my trip there is even if massive numbers of people aren't dying, whole communities are living in fear. Worse yet, this is a normal feeling for a generation of children.

Here's a hole in a fence caused by shrapnel from a Kassam that crashed through a roof next door.

Here's a mark in the street from a Kassam. Just up the block was a playground.

Later in the day, I went to the Gaza border, where things did not look so good. Throughout the day I could hear Israeli shells and when I arrived at the border, I saw smoke rising from Gaza City. I was told that the smoke bombs are fired before the real ones to tell civilians to leave, but I have not confirmed that. Whatever it was, it did not look pretty.

Here is smoke rising from Beit Hanun, where most of the Kassams originate.

War

2006-07-14T00:42:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday morning I went to work and was reading the news. I had read all the news stories, mainly about Hamas and Gaza and prisoner negotiations and then at about 10 o'clock, a newsflash appeared on the Jerusalem Post website. Hezbollah was resuming Katyusha fire on the north of Israel. This was a frightening headline, but I didn't have time to explore deeper. My group was going to meet with a group of Palestinians who run a newspaper for youth to give them a non-violent outlet for expression. As I waited for the cab, I started to speculate. All these weeks, everybody had been concerned about Kassams from Gaza. Suddenly, that story began to seem irrelavent.

I got in the cab and the cabdriver was listening to the news in Hebrew. One of my Hebrew speaking friends gasped. "Hezbollah says they have two Israeli prisoners hostage," she said. I asked the cabdriver if the report was confirmed. I found out that it wasn't. I asked him if he believed them. He said he wasn't sure yet.

I got out of the cab at around 10:45 for my meeting. I sat down at the conference table. "Now, we have two fronts," one of my right-wing friends said. The next two and a half hours we talked with the Palestinian kids. It was much more uplifting than the last meeting. These were smart kids. They offered rational arguments. The main argument was about the legitimacy of Hamas. The whole time I was wondering what was going on with Lebanon.

On the cab ride back, I asked the driver about it. It was about 2:15. I asked him if he believed that Hezbollah had captured the soldiers. He said, "Of course." Its unclear whether there had been confirmation or he just believed it himself.

At work, my Israeli co-workers were very pessimistic. This can only get worse was the attitude. I took another cab at about 7:30 p.m. This cabdriver spoke about as much English as I speak Hebrew. I tried to ask him about the news. We could only agree on two words: "Not good."

After work, I walked the dogs that I'm watching this weekend and then went to dinner with one of my Israeli friends. We talked about the situation. She agreed that things would get worse, but that Israel had to respond in a way that would really hurt these guys. We talked about how depressing the day was. She talked about how depressed she was during the Intifada.

Yesterday, I read the news very carefully and thoroughly. It was bad. In the morning, I took the garbage downstairs, but the garbage can was full. So, I put my garbage bag next to the can. A few minutes later, a man came up speaking angrily in Hebrew. Apparently, they thought the garbage bag was a bomb. Things were tense.

I continued reading the news. First, I learned that Hezbollah was using rockets with a longer range than previously expected. There was speculation that if they possess Fajr-5 rockets, they could almost reach Tel Aviv, putting 30 percent of the Israeli population in rocket range. Israel was bombing targets in Lebanon. Still, the IDF was avoiding the word "war." "High volume conflict" was the term of choice. Then, Katyushas nailed Nahariya, a major city, killing a woman. I thought of my previous trip up north, where I went to a Kibbutz overlooking the Lebanese border. I remembered them talking about the days when they basically lived in bomb shelters.

Later in the day, Katyushas hit Tzfat. Tzfat was one of the first places I ever went to in Israel. It is home of the Caballa, a city with a real spiritual feeling. My Orthodox friend informed me that it is the second holiest city in Israel. I thought how the international reaction would be vastly different if somebody bombed Medina.

Later, Hezbollah threatened to hit Haifa. Haifa is one of my favorite cities in Israel. I was actually planning on going there this weekend.

Before work, I talked to my boss about security. He said that he expected more terrorist attempts, but he felt safe because of the security fence.

Finally, I left work. A friend called me and informed that Haifa had been hit. I knew that that meant this was no longer a "high volume conflict."

I think the important thing to remember when analyzing this conflict (including the Gaza conflict) is that Gaza and Lebanon are not the targets. The real problem is in Syria and Iran.

You can't analyze this story without looking at the context. Right now, Iran is being pressured by the world community to give up its nuclear program. A few weeks ago, there was an interesting news story. Syria and Iran had signed a defense agreement. Next, about 20 days ago, Hamas creates a major escalation with Israel, going into Israeli sovereign territory, killing soldiers and kidnapping another. The architect of the Hamas plan is widely believed to be Khaled Mashaal, who is harbored in Syria. It was very telling that after the kidnapping, the IAF flew planes over the house of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. Israel knew that the release of Gilad Shalit could not be secured in Gaza, but in Damascus.

Then, a few days ago, the attack comes from Lebanon. Not from Lebanon specifically, but from Hezbollah. To understand Hezbollah, its important to follow its funding. By all accounts, Hezbollah receives its weapons and funding from Iran. Syria is the intermediary, allowing weapons and money to flow freely into southern Lebanon in exchange for political support. It's not surprising that Hezbollah is openly pro-Syrian. It's also not surprising that after the Hezbollah attack, Olmert and the cabinet once again pointed the finger at Syria. While Olmert said that he held the Lebanese government responsible, he also said that he hoped the military operation would "echo in the right places" (read: Damascus). It's clear that Olmert understands that just as he had to do with the Hamas situation, he had to pressure Syria.

Yet, it all goes back to that defense agreement. Today, I read that Ahmadinejad threatened Israel that Iran would get involved with the war if Israel attacked Syria. Thus, unless Israel wants a war with the entire Middle East, it cannot attack the source of its security problems.

Iran and Syria wanted war in the Middle East for a few reasons. One, they are both openly anti-Israel. Two, another Middle Eastern war could take the pressure off of Iran's nuclear program, giving Iran an opportunity to balance Israeli power in the region. By funding terrorism, they have found a way to fight this war without going head-to-head with the IDF.

The picture is very bleak right now. As far as my daily life goes, though, things are relatively quiet in Jerusalem. Hopefully they stay that way.

The Dead Sea

2006-07-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I traveled southeast, to the Dead Sea. My trip began in Jerusalem, where a few friends and I took a cab to the Central Bus Station. Our cabdriver was named Yedidiya. When he found out that we were going to the Dead Sea, he tried to bargain with us to let us drive him there. Eventually, because he was so persistent, we agreed to a price of 110 shekels with a stop in Qumran. Frankly, it was expensive, but almost worth it to talk to this guy. He spoke very little English, but he had a few interesting stories. He served in the Sinai Desert with Ariel Sharon's unit. Later, he served at the Dead Sea, fighting the Jordanians. His experiences led to some very negative views of Arabs. He said several times that all Arabs are terrorists. When talking about Sharon, he said Sharon was crazy and he hated Arabs, but he supported him because he was the right kind of crazy. I asked him about Olmert and he said it was too early to make a call one way or another.

So we drove along the Dead Sea and stopped in Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea scrolls, the oldest copies of the Old Testament, were discovered. I was amazed to discover that the scrolls were found between 1947 and 1956. To think that something that valuable could have been sitting in caves 70 years ago is amazing.

Here's a picture of Qumran.

We spent the rest of the day floating in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea stakes the claim of being the lowest point on Earth. It could also stake a claim as one of the most unique places on Earth. The Dead Sea is so salty that every person floats in it. No matter how hard you try, you rise to the top. I've heard stories of people falling asleep and floating across to Jordan. I don't know whether to believe them. Due to the intense heat and sunshine, The Dead Sea is drying up fairly rapidly. It's amazing to think that one day it might disappear and people will have to explain it to their kids, who probably will not believe them.

The next morning, I woke up early and went to Masada, the mountain fortress in the middle of the desert. From its perch 1300 feet above the Dead Sea, I was able to watch the sunrise. I would describe the scene of the sun peaking over the Jordanian hills across the Dead Sea as the sunrising over the moon. Here are some pictures.

Masada is a very important site in the history of the Jewish people. When the Romans conquered the land of Israel, Masada served as the last stronghold of the Zealot Jews. Somehow as the Roman legions gathered around Masada, the Jews were able to thrive there. Finally, in the year 73, the Roman legion succeded in conquering Masada. Before the Romans could take the Jews hostage, however, they all committed suicide. Because suicide is forbidden in Judaism, this was a very controversial and tragic decision.

Masada also holds a very important place in the modern Jewish state. Many IDF soldiers have been sworn in on Masada, where they have vowed that Masada will never fall again. Masada is a symbol of resistance.

From Masada, I went to the En Gedi nature reserve, right next to the Dead Sea. The hiking was very difficult because of the extreme heat, but it was very beautiful. Here's one of the many Ibex (I'm not sure what the plural is) that I saw along the way.

Further into En Gedi, the land was much more lush and fertile because of the waterfalls, which also provided a nice break from the heat.

Seeing the shrinking Dead Sea, the serene landscape of Masada, which once served as a bloody battleground and this nature reserve, I was curious what this cradle of Bible history once looked like. It's hard to believe that so many important things could happen in a barren desert land, but it is totally conceivable that the land was not so barren at the time.

Jerusalem Film Fest

2006-07-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, I went to the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival at Sultan's Pool, outside of the Old City. It was a beautiful setting with a huge outdoor screen. The event, which seated about 5,000, was sold out three days in advance, so my five friends and I tried to buy from scalpers. Fortunately, we found enough tickets, and only had to pay for one of them.

There were a few celebrities there, such as the mayor of Jerusalem and Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park and Independence Day.

The featured film was Someone to Run With, an Israeli film by Oded Davidoff. It was about a teenage Israeli in Jerusalem who works in an animal shelter. A new dog has come in and his job is to find the owner by letting the dog lead him through the city. As he runs through the city with Dinka, he learns about the owner. It turns out she was a sixteen year old girl who ran away with her guitar and joined this shelter for street performers. The shelter was run by an abusive owner who held the performers hostage by encouraging and fueling heroine addictions. I thought it was a great film, and I really enjoyed the music.

The Jerusalem Film Festival is 10 days long. I hope to go to more of these movies.

From Eilat to the Settlements

2006-07-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

I took the four hour bus ride this weekend through the Negev Desert, down to Eilat. Eilat is at the southern tip of Israel, right on the Red Sea, which is ironically the bluest water I've ever seen.

Behind me are the mountains of Jordan. Eilat is sandwiched between Jordan and the Egyptian Sinai. There's not a whole lot to say about it. There's a beach, coral, really hot weather and not a whole lot else. My friends and I went swimming, snorkeling and banana boating.

Sunday was a slightly different kind of experience. I went to Gush Etzion, a settlement block in the Judean hills south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The fighting of the settlers at Gush Etzion played a big role in the Jews holding onto Jerusalem in the war of independence. This is a famous tree called "The Lone Tree." Before other trees were planted around it, it was visible for miles.

We went to Efrat, a settlement community in the block and met with Bob Lang, a local settler.

He invited us into his home.

I think the first thing that struck me about Efrat was how normal it felt. It was easy to mistake the white brick, red roofed homes with driveways, flowers and flags out front for suburban homes. On the news, settlements usually appear as tractors building homes or as mobile homes.

The next thing that struck me was Bob Lang, himself. I half-expected a crazy-looking religious Jew with a torah in his hand and an M-16 strapped to his back. Instead, I was greeted by a short-haired New Yorker with a blue-button down shirt and glasses. When I walked into his house, I was greeted by his two kids on summer vacation, as well as his puppy Maki.

In the house, I saw indications of his religious beliefs and Zionism. He wore a kippah on his head and pictures of Jerusalem hung on his walls. Hanging above the kitchen was a homemade Israeli flag.

"The reason I live here, the reason that Jews live here, is this is our home. If you take out the history book, the Tanakh, 90 percent of the places mentioned are here," he said.

He talked about the importance of this land to the Jewish people and the importance of settlers populating it. He drew comparisons to Zionist pioneers building Kibbutzim on the Lebanese border. His goal was clear.

"I believe there should not be a Palestinian state," he said. "I believe that one day Israel will annex all of this and it will become part of the state of Israel."

Clearly, boosting the Israeli tie to this traditional Jewish land was his main concern. However, he admitted that talking about history will not get you very far when talking to Jews living in Tel Aviv or other Israeli cities. Instead, he said that security is what they're concerned about.

According to Lang, security is another compelling reason for settling in the West Bank. He drew parallels to what happened when Israel left the Gaza Strip. He pointed out that if the West Bank became a terrorist hot spot like the Gaza Strip, the rockets that are now falling in the western Negev could be nailing places like Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport.

I find the security argument more compelling. His argument about traditional ties to the land is fine, but it ignores current demographics. While Judea and Samaria may have once been Jewish land, they are overwhelmingly Arab today. His arguments sound eerily similar to those of Palestinian extremists who say that their ancestors lived in the land of Israel and one day they will get it back. Both sides need to recognize that when this is all resolved, they will be living together, whether in the same state, or as neighbors.

Still, I'm not sure to what degree I support pulling out of the West Bank right now. If you had asked me six months ago, I would have given a different answer, but the situation in Gaza complicates things. In Gaza, the Jews made a great sacrifice by leaving, but the Palestinians did not make the sacrifice of laying down their weapons. For separation to work, both sides must make sacrifices. Until the Palestinians who fight Israel violently have leaders who hold them accountable for their actions, it seems like suicide for Israel to leave the West Bank. If they do show that accountability and responsibility and willingness to live in peace, I believe there is no reason to deny them a state. I don't think that would make people like Bob Lang happy.

I asked him what he would do if he was forced to leave his home like the settlers in Gaza.

"The government will have to remove me from this house," he said. "Will I ever shoot a soldier? God forbid ever no. Will I ever hit a soldier? God forbid ever no. What I will do is I will protest democratically."

A Day Up North

2006-06-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a few days, largely because of the events here in Israel. Things are getting pretty intense here. Frankly, a ground incursion into Gaza seemed like only a matter of time after the barrage of rocket attacks against Sderot and Ashkelon. The Shalit kidnapping was just the spark. Yet, it is still an ugly situation. I think the most damaging effect is on the hope of separation. After the 90s peace talks collapsed, many hoped that separation would be a route to security. Israel made great sacrifices for this security, uprooting Jewish families from Gaza last year. These sacrifices were made with a peaceful future in mind. The Palestinians claimed they were fighting an occupation, so many Israelis thought that giving them their own state would end the bloodshed. That has not been the case. After disengagement, the problem of Gaza did not go away. Now, Israeli troops are back in Gaza. Nobody knows how long they will have to be there. But after this, it will be hard to sell Olmert's pullout of the West Bank. Why has disengagement failed to pacify the Gazan Palestinians? I gained some insight into that this Tuesday travelling up north.

On Tuesday, I took a trip all the way up to the Lebanese borders. Here is a look into Hezbollah-run southern Lebanon.

After driving through the Golan, I went to the Israeli Arab village of Arara, very close to the West Bank to meet with Israeli Arabs. We met at a women's center, so it was mostly women involved in the discussion. Most wore western-style clothes, albeit more conservative, and spoke fairly good English, thanks to Hollywood, as some of them pointed out. They provided my American colleagues and I with drinks and cookies and seemed very happy to meet us.

The conversation started on what it's like to be an Arab Israeli. Each felt like a second class citizen, although they wouldn't specify what that means in every day life. One compared their plight to that of blacks in America. It was hard not to sympathize with this. While Arabs in Israel have it better than many of their Arab brethren in other countries (they all participated in the last Israeli election, something very few Arab women in other countries could probably say), they do not enjoy the same status as Jews in the Jewish state.

When asked how they referred to themselves, most said Palestinian living in Israel, rather than Israeli Arab. All of them would prefer to raise the Palestinian flag, rather than the Israeli one and all of them felt that they deserved their own state, although not if it meant moving from their homes into the West Bank or Gaza Strip. They all seemed to have a strong connection to their land. The one male in the group said that he would not take a million dollars to move into another city.

It became very clear early in the conversation that these people had been taught a different narrative than I had. According to the narrative they had learned, the land of Palestine did not have Jews in it before 1948. In 1948, a Zionist wave hit Palestine and the Jews, who had hijacked world opinion, stole what was Arab land. When asked about the fact that most of the Jews had legally bought land, one said that that was not possible because the Arabs never would have sold their land. When asked whether the Holocaust was a justification for Israel, one said that they should have gone somewhere else, like Holland. When asked about the fact that Jews were oppressed in other Middle Eastern countries, one said that there is an enormous Jewish population in Syria and that they are treated very well. All of them denied mistreatment of Jews in Arab countries.

Victimization was a strong theme throughout the meetings. The Arab world sold them out and the Jews oppressed them, as evidenced by the security fence. The oppression of the Jews, as their narrative goes, is protected by the media. One pointed out that you hear about suicide bombs, but you never hear about Israeli soldiers maliciously killing innocent women and children. You hear about Muslim terrorism, but never about Jewish terrorism. To most, terrorism and the actions of the Israeli army were the same. While none of them "supported" terrorism, they all claimed to "understand" it. Two of the girls even mentioned that they respected Osama bin Laden. When I asked them about it, they reverted to "understand."

The key concept is that they saw "the occupation" not just as the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but all of Israel. To these people, the Jews stole their land and started a war. Often generally mentioning the American invasion of Iraq, there was a belief that there are no rules in war. Therefore, in response to an unjust occupation of their land, the Israeli Arabs believe that they must do what they can to fight and get it back. As the "victims," they believe that terrorism is their means of fighting back.

This was very upsetting to hear. I have come to believe that the problem of terrorism can only be combatted from within communities. Muslim communities must denounce it. Even if they believe that Israel is an unjust occupying force, they must draw a line saying that civilian casualties are unacceptable. This group of Arabs was not willing to draw that line. Until they are, and until they are willing to recognize that Israel is not going to disappear, there will be no peace.

From that experience, I went up to Haifa to meet with Yossi Zur and Ron Kehrmann. They are pictured below.

These are two men who did not know each other prior to March 5, 2003. On that date, however, their 17-year old children were killed when a terrorist blew up Bus 37 in Haifa. On that date, Asaf Zur and Tal Kehrmann, along with many other children, had the bad luck of riding home from school at the wrong time. Now, the two meet with journalists and politicians about terrorism.

We met them in Haifa, just off the coast, in a cemetary. Unlike other cities, Haifa decided to bury its terror victims in one area of the cemetary. While other gravestones in Israel all look the same, these gravestones were more like memorials. Each was customized by the family of the victim. Here is Asaf's gravestone.

He was into surfing and that is why it is shaped like a surfboard. Here is Tal's gravestone. Included on hers are reproductions of rocks with Hebrew written on them. The messages on the rocks were copied from a place in which Tal used to hang out where kids would write on the stones.

Obviously, this was a powerful experience. Ron and Yosi have made a decision that talking to journalists and others about their children is the best way to heal. Yet, I couldn't help but wonder whether they were thinking about the fact that their children would be my age if they were still alive.

You don't understand how formative the intifada has been for Israeli society and culture until you've talked to the people here. I remember watching story after story, in which I would see an ambulance in the middle of the night with a reporter saying standing in front of it, saying what happened. These reports were just news. They had almost no emotional impact.

Here in Israel, the emotional impact is present in everyone's life. Even those who were fortunate enough to survive with their families intact were affected greatly. I talked to one former police officer who is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He described to me how one day he just came home and cried and couldn't stop for days. I talked to another man who described to me the procedure his family would use when getting on a bus during the intifada. The four of them would spread out to all four corners of the bus. The reason? In case of a terrorist attack, they wanted to increase the chance that at least one person would survive.

Life is much better today in Israel than it was in 2003. Whether it's from the increased security at stores, the security fence, targeted assassinations or Shin Bet operations in the territories, terrorism has decreased. Yet, it is still one of the most powerful forces in Israeli culture.

From the Old City to the Basketball Courts

2006-06-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

I stayed in Jerusalem this weekend and had a couple of different experiences. On Friday, I went for a walk in the Old City with my friend Sara.

In the 10th Century B.C., King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem and from that point on, it was a magnet for religion. Here is a picture of the Dome of the Rock (gold) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque (grey), rising behind the Western Wall. That piece of land is the holiest site in all of Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam.

Not far from that site is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stands on the place where Jesus was crucified and buried.

Here are some views from the Old City Walls.

On Thursday, I bought a basketball for 25 shekels and went to the basketball courts at Gan Hapaamon. I walked onto the court and saw somebody wearing a Michael Jordan jersey. Of course, I yelled out like an idiot: "Hey, are you from Chicago?" He stared back at me blankly. No English. I played halfcourt 3-on-3 with a mixed group of Arabs and Jews. I spoke a little Arabic to the Arabs, a little English to the Jews and we kept score in Hebrew. Words like "foul" and "Allen Iverson" were the same in all three languages. Aside from the trapezoidal lane and the occassional language barrier, it felt like playing basketball in the US.

With the internationalization of the game and the news that Israeli Lior Eliahu is going pro this year or the next, I expected the courts to be packed. Clearly, the game's growing here. Rachel, the office manager at my work, is a big basketball fan. Yet, the popularity of basketball here lags far behind that of soccer, as evidenced by the fact that the bars are packed every night with people watching the world cup. Still, it's good to know that there's a place where I can go meet Arabs, Israelis and Americans and we can all relate.

The Security Fence

2006-06-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

I went on a tour of the security fence today. When Israel began construction of the fence in 2002, it was very controversial. Critics of Israel hailed it as the physical embodiment of what is an Apartheid state. Obviously, these comparisons to Apartheid-era South Africa miss the mark. Arabs in Israel are not second class citizens. In fact, they have many rights that Arabs in Arab countries do not have. Still, there are troubling aspects to the security fence, so I thought it would be worth a look.

I started the day in Gilo, a Jewish community in southern Jerusalem. Gilo is a relatively new community offering an alternative to pricier housing closer to the city center. As such, it attracted many young families trying to get started. Imagine moving to Gilo five years ago, looking out your window and seeing this view, overlooking Bethlehem, a suburb of Jerusalem.

Over the past 12 years since the PLO took control of Bethlehem, the demographics have changed greatly. At the time, Bethlehem had a Christian majority. Due partially to repression of Christian Palestinians, the demographics shifted greatly and Bethlehem is now about 70 percent Muslim.

In October of 2000, snipers in Beit Jala, a neighboring community to Bethlehem, armed with sniper rifles began to shoot up the hillside into homes and even a kindergarten in Gilo. Worse, others from Bethlehem fired mortars into Gilo. Suddenly, a place that had provided families an opportunity to get started was no longer safe.

For that reason, the community of Gilo pressured the government to build a concrete wall to block sniper fire (this is separate from the controversial security fence). The Israeli government, at great cost, responded by putting up concrete walls to block the sniper fire. Instead of their beautiful view of the rolling hills behind Bethlehem, they have a painted mural on a slab of concrete.

I tell this story because this is the backdrop in which Israelis must live. There are good Israelis and bad Israelis, but the majority of Israelis just want to live in peace and security and they are willing to make sacrifices for it. Israel gave up the Sinai for peace with Egypt 25 years ago. About a year ago, the IDF went into the Gaza Strip and transferred families who had lived their for years. It was painful, but it was done for peace.

Yet, the Palestinians have not made the same sacrifices. When they were blowing up buses and cafes every week, the argument was that it was in response to the Israeli "occupation." Yet, when Israel left Gaza, the attacks did not stop. Every day since the withdrawl, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups have shelled Israeli communities with Kassam (and occasionally Ktyusha) rockets. Sorry for digressing, but I think when talking about the security fence, it is important to understand the every day sacrifices that Israelis have made to live in peace with neighbors that have not been so accomodating.

It is with this in mind that the Israeli government decided to erect a security barrier to protect its citizens. Building the fence has been unbelievably tricky, especially in Jerusalem, and looking at the communities around Jerusalem it is easy to see why. There is no clearly defined border between Jewish and Arab communities. Furthermore, it is often hard to distinguish between peaceful Arab communities and those that pose as a threat. That's why despite waves of terrorism, Israel didn't build a fence until very recently.

Here's a picture of the fence. It's very difficult to see, but it's the part of the picture that looks like a road.

I think the interesting thing about it is how unobtrusive it is. Although many refer to it as a wall, about 95 percent of the security barrier is actually a fence. The other five percent is in urban sections.

Here's a picture of what it looks like protecting Jerusalem from Abu Dis.

There's no doubt that these sections of the wall are very ugly. There's also no doubt that all sections of the wall are an inconvenience to Palestinians. Here is a picture of a fence of a checkpoint that I visited at Kalandia. Palestinians wishing to cross a checkpoint must drop off their cars at the initial checkpoint, then take a cab to the other side.

Israel has tried to reduce the inconvenience. No Palestinians were relocated, although some were cut off from their land. In those cases, the fence was either moved (has been done 17 times) or a gate was added to allow access to the land. Still, nobody can deny the inconvenience to the Palestinian people.

Yet, this inconvenience is worth the number of lives saved by the fence. Since the construction of the fence, no suicide bomber has gone through the fence and carried out an attack. This is a stark change from the second intifada, when hundreds of Israelis were dying each year. Those who were fortunate to avoid these attacks had the "inconvenience" of taking cabs instead of buses, avoiding cafes and living in a state of fear. Given the difference between life now in Israel and life before the fence, it is extremely difficult to oppose the wall. While it does inconvenience Palestinians, it saves Israeli lives. Israel has the right to protect itself.

Nonie Darwish

2006-06-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, I saw Nonie Darwish for the second time.

Her story is a very interesting one worth sharing. She was born in Cairo, but grew up in Gaza, growing up in a culture of hate. "In Gaza elementary schools, we learned hatred, vengeance and retaliation. Hatred seemed normal," she said. The object of the hatred was often the Jews. Her father was in charge of the Egyptian Fedayeen, leading the terrorist operations against the state of Israel, murdering innocent Israelis. According to Darwish, the Fedayeen was responsible for killing 400 Israelis and wounding 900. In 1956, when Darwish was just eight years old, her father became the first victim of an Israeli targeted assasination. When Nasser gave his speech about nationalizing the Suez Canal, he mentioned Darwish's father by name, said he was a hero and called for revenge for his death.

Losing her father could have easily made Nonie more hardened against Jews. After her father's death, she recalls people asking her and her syblings, "Which one of you will grow up to kill Jews?" Darwish wanted no part of it. She wanted her father back.

Eventually, Darwish moved to the United States in 1978 where she began to see that a lot of the hatred she was taught was wrong. She began to become quietly supportive of the US, Israel and the west and critical of the culture of hate encircling her people. On September 11, 2001, she ended the quiet and began to speak out.

Darwish created a site called www.arabsforisrael.com, a pretty self-explanatory forum. She began writing articles and speaking around the country. She was featured in the film Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West and her book Now They Call Me Infidel is due to come out in November.

I can't say I agree completely with everything Darwish says, but her story truly is unbelievable. For someone to emerge from that background and support the West and support Israel speaks well for the goodness of humanity to rise above dreadful circumstance.

The most compelling thing about her message, however, is its insistence on accountability. Darwish did not offer many prescriptions about what the US should do about radical Islam, instead focusing on what the Arab and Muslim communities must do. I agree that there's very little America can do about radical Islam, aside from helping good Muslims help themselves.

Tel Aviv

2006-06-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

I went to Tel Aviv this weekend. From a city over 3,000 years old to one under 100 years old in under an hour. I can't really describe this weekend better than these pictures.

I think two other experiences are worth noting. While staying in the hostel, I roomed with a 31-year old Japanese botany student named Mitzulo. Although he didn't speak much English, I learned that he had been traveling the world for the past few years, visiting places such as Thailand, Laos, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. We talked about many things: Israel, our travels, Japanese popular opinions, global warming, religion, food, and finally BASEBALL. The globalization of the game is incredible. Although we were two people from opposite sides of the world, we were able to discuss the same players. It was interesting to hear about his experiences, but it was even better just being able to connect with someone from the other side of the world.

The other experience I wanted to share was my ride back in the Taxi. Because the taxi driver was from Tel Aviv, he did not know how to get to specific areas of Jerusalem. Luckily, he had a GPS system in the cab that allowed him to type in an address and receive oral instructions in Hebrew. The only problem was that the thing would always give him the direction right before he had to turn. So, the whole ride back, this machine would spit out instructions too late and he would mumble back at it angrily in Hebrew. When we reached Jerusalem, the GPS led him to the ultra-orthodox village of Mea Shearim. Because it was Shabbat, he was not allowed to drive through the village, so he had to go around it. "The GPS does not know Shabbat." I just thought that conflict between religion and modernity was an interesting story.

An Indian Jew in Jerusalem...

2006-06-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago, I went to the Birthright Megaevent, celebrating the 100,000 Birthright participant in Israel. It was a huge celebration, featuring Shimone Peres, a host of Israeli singers and dancers, as well as plenty of lights and fireworks. It brought back some warm memories for me of my megaevent, only six months ago.

The fact that over 100,000 young Jews have been granted the opportunity to experience Israel is incredible. The fact that the Jewish community has paid for it is even more so.

I think the most amazing thing about Birthright that many people overlook is its international nature. It would be one thing if the state of Israel and Jewish organizations were making an investment in a bunch of rich American Jews, who would then invest in the future. These trips do exist, but Birthright is much more universal. There were Jews from the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Russia and other countries. I talked for several minutes with an Indian Jew, certainly someone I wouldn't expect to meet in a lifetime. But that is the remarkable thing about Israel.

I think that when many people view Israel, they see the image of Orthodox Jews of European dissent praying at the Western Wall, all dressed in the same manner. The reality is that Israel is a truly multi-cultural nation. Many people see it as a divided land between Jews and Arabs, but the population of Israel includes many others that do not fit into either of these categories. There are Christians, Armenians and many other groups.

Furthermore. the Jewish and Arab populations are far from homogenous themselves. Within the Jewish population, there are European Jews, Middle Eastern Jews (during the winter I spent a few days with an Iraqi Jewish family), Russian Jews (right now, my hostel is filled with Israeli soldiers who speak to each other in Russian), Ethiopian Jews, South African Jews, etc.

Two things allow for this cultural diversity. One is the right of return. Obviously, the fact that Israel is a Jewish state and allows for any Jew to become a citizen makes it a magnet for Jews around the world. The second factor, though, that allows for the diversity is the tolerance in Israel.

While Israel is a Jewish state, it is also a liberal democracy that grants rights for minorities. Even Arabs have more rights in Israel than in Arab states. Few people realize that Israel is one of the only states in the Middle East where Arab women have the right to vote. In talking with Arabs around the city, this is why so many of them are happy to live in Israel. That story of Israeli Arabs happy to be Israeli certainly does not appear too often in the media.

I'm still kind of trying to find my format with this blog, so if you have any suggestions, please post a comment.

The Beginning

2006-06-13T04:52:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I have begun my two-month journey in Israel. I left home last Sunday and traveled to Washington D.C. for a 4-day Strategic Communications Conference as training for my job. After a four-day crash course in strategic communications, which involved listening to speakers for 12 hours a day, I hopped on a plane to Ben-Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv, after a brief stop in Atlanta. Approximately 12 hours later, our group of media fellows landed in Tel Aviv, where it was just about an hour before Shabbat. Because several of my colleagues are observant Jews, we had to rush to our hostel to get ready for Shabbat. From that point on, I vaguely remember putting some combination of hummus, cucumbers, challah and various other Israeli foods into my exhausted body before sleeping.

12 hours after going to sleep (3rd time I've used that number), I woke up and headed over to Ben-Yehuda Street, the big shopping street in modern Jerusalem to utilize the free public wireless to catch up on my e-mails. My own school can't get wireless, but the ancient city of Jerusalem already has free wireless for the general public. It was very interesting to start my trip on Shabbat in Jerusalem because the city really does shut down (Think: America in the 50s). In a way, though, the rest was perfect for a jet-lagged traveler, so I spent the day wandering around Jerusalem and the Old City. At night, I watched The World Cup at a bar off of Yafo Street. Argentina was playing the Ivory Coast, although it took me a few minutes to figure that out because the game was in Hebrew. As I settled into my seat, I was shocked to learn that I could understand the foreign language all around me. It was Spanish! The bar was packed with Jews from Argentina. Argentina has the fifth largest Jewish population in the world, so I've been hearing Spanish all over the place here.

The next day, I began work. After a brief orientation, we met with Lisa Goldman, a freelance reporter who specializes in blogging (part of the inspiration for this blog). Goldman's message essentially was that blogs play a role in the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by showing the human element of both sides. I thought the most interesting thing about Goldman's discussion was her discussion about the rise of blogs in the Middle East. According to Goldman, there are over 70,000 blogs in Iran, although they are extremely restricted. I think this shows a lot about the situation in Iran.

The Revolution in Iran was a people's revolution, although it was taken hostage by an ideological extremist. I believe that this culture of political action still lies in the Iranian people. That is the reason why this regime has been so brutally repressive. They fear their people. According to Ilan Berman, the author of Tehran Rising, that is part of the logic in pursuing the bomb. Therefore, the way to diffuse the threat of Iran is free the people from its tyrannical government. Easier said than done.

On Monday, I took a bus tour of Jerusalem. The most exciting thing for me about the tour was using the Arabic option (it was translated in nine languages, all of which seemed to be important in Israel). I'm actually finding that my Arabic is significantlly better than the last time I was here.

Today, we went to meet with Col. Uri Dromi of the Israel Democracy Institute. His group is engaged in drafting a constitution for Israel, 59 years after the creation of the state. His talk really illustrated that Israel is a country that is still very much up-for-grabs. Everybody is interested in the struggle with the Palestinians, but Israel has equally interesting internal conflicts. I'd love to get more into that, but it's a long entry already and I just wanted to get this thing going. Hope all is well back in the states.